For mobile users there are frequent occurrences when a printing device may not be readily available, but the user has an impulse to print. For example, although a printer may not be available on an airplane, during the course of a long flight a user may have a desire to print several times.
Current solutions to a different problem include a service called Instant Delivery, which provides a customized “newspaper” delivered to a printer. The Instant Delivery service pulls content down from a service located on the public Internet and then prints that content. Instant Delivery is intended to be a replacement for the daily newspaper. However, the Instant Delivery service does not use encryption technology as part of the service, and does not make use of smart card or other portable computing devices.
A second service currently available is PrinterON, which provides a directory of public printers and uses the IPP protocol to print to these public printers through a firewall. The IPP protocol used by PrinterON is based on HTTP, which enables the originator of the print job to send print data through a firewall.
A further service in the prior art is Nadio.com, which provides a remote printing solution that allows both a client and a printer to be behind two distinct firewalls. Print data is encrypted in Nadio.com on a source machine and transported using HTTP through a firewall to a service on the public Internet. This service is periodically polled by another service running behind a firewall on a destination machine. The destination machine uses HTTP to poll the service running on the public Internet for jobs to be printed. However, the Nadio.com service uses printer-specific queues to facilitate its operation.
Hewlett Packard also has a technology coalition referred to as JetCAPS that develop solutions for LaserJet printers. One such solution provides a means for storing encrypted print jobs on a hard disk contained in a printer. This JetCAPS solution allows the use of a smart card in order to decrypt and print the encrypted job on the hard disk contained in the printer.
Accordingly, there continues to be a problem in the industry relating to providing convenient, printer-independent printing solutions for a mobile user.